Thank you for the kind words; it's nice to find so many animal lovers here. Believe me, the animals deserve it!

Today I would like to introduce you to another breed of cattle that i once again start with a bull. The Chianina is an Italian breed of cattle, formerly principally a draught breed, now raised mainly for beef. It is the largest and one of the oldest cattle breeds in the world. It originates in the area of the Valdichiana, from which it takes its name, and the middle Tiber valley. Chianina cattle have been raised in the Italian regions of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio for at least 2200 years. Columella, writing in his "De Re Rustica, Liber Sextus" about types of oxen in about 55 AD, says "Umbria vastos et albos ..." (VI.I.2), which in the first English translation is "Umbria has such as are huge, and of a white colour". Chianina oxen were the principal source of agricultural power in the area until displaced by mechanisation and the collapse of the mezzadria system following the Second World War.

In the following photo i once experimented with the image editing program to demonstrate the direct comparison between two-dimensional scale sized drawing (left) and the three-dimensional result of my work.

I like the very typical figure of this breed, which combines elegance, calm and yet sheer strength. What do you mean?

But the pigs aren't the only news. I have found some time to sculpt again and built some new beasts. First, the already introduced Chianina bull has been improved a bit; especially the front legs i had not really liked. Now he looks like this:

The male giraffe was completely new sculpted. He's a true giant, yet only 6 cm (2.4 ") high. I think the giraffe's gait has something very deliberate and majestic. I tried to reproduce that expression in my figurine. Did it work?

I've experimented a bit, how I could put the characters from my "Masterboxes" a bit more appealing than before. Although the white-gray-black version depicts what should be visible - they never really pleased my eye. Last week, I got an idea. I was awake a long time again and thought about how I mean because of different colored modeling compounds and material mixes often very "colorful" master figures for exhibitions, but at the same time with a certain "touch" - or recognition value - could make fit for the media presentation. To make matters worse here is that I am not a figure painter or (yet) have found no access to this subject - naturalistic representations are thus practically out of the way ...

Well, long story short, this has come out. I purposely photographed the giraffe because I last set their monotonous counterparts; so you can compare better ...

I once made a mental leap across the Atlantic ocean and did not overlook these great animals in search of a typical representative of the megafauna there. Of course I had to be sculpting this. First - as always - the bull, because of the more impressive appearance; Now I have to think about the cows and calves for the various cattle breeds, which are now in my basic equipment...

Graeme, I like your idea. But I would like to limit my work to the time after the Pleistocene; that's why I'll be making a European bison soon, called the "Wisent". Maybe you already heard about it?

Mind you, today, it's about another bull.

After a short detour in the American Plains, I first looked around Europe again and I found very old breed of cattle with a remarkable history. The Charolais live in France since the 16th century; as first over nearly 200 years in the départements Nièvre and Sâone-et-Loire, from the end of the 18th century in the whole France and nowadays in more than 68 countries on all 5 continents and under all climatic obstructions.

The Charolais - after the place Charolles - arise over the centuries as a branch of the large Jurassassen of Central and Eastern Europe, which had settled in central France in Brionnais. On the hills and in the valleys the natural premises have formed a breed that believe primarily as working animals - with the showy, muscular skeleton but at the same time peaceful, fertile and robust. Only much later, in the nineteenth century, people began to appreciate the quality of the meat, because the role as a worker makes a muscular physique that does not require much fat.

The growth is large, the frame is wide, deep and long; the muscles are strong; the animals are late maturing. The withers height of cows is 132 cm, but can also reach 140 cm, for the bulls 142 - 150 cm at the withers were measured. Cows weigh 700-900 kg, bulls 1100-1300 kg. They are monochrome white to off-white, without pigmentation. The muzzle, horn and claws are hell.